Occasional family and ministry updates
We have just come off a restful four-day weekend. Good Friday and Easter are both national holidays here in Canada, and we enjoyed the days of downtime and the special worship services. With that behind us, we are in a stretch that leads to the Victoria Day weekend which comes at the end of May…
Here in my home province of Ontario we have been under stay-at-home orders for the past month. It’s a relatively soft version of a stay-at-home mandate, and certainly doesn’t compare to an Italian equivalent from early in the pandemic or an Australian “emergency brake” equivalent today, but it’s still enough to keep us from venturing…
It is hard to believe it has been 10 weeks since Nick went to heaven—10 weeks since I last FaceTimed him, since I last texted him, since I last shared a belly laugh with him. He is still the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and he’s still on…
We are okay. At least, I think we are. To be honest, I don’t really know how to judge that, or even what it really means. But I think it’s true. We’re badly broken, but somehow okay. It was four weeks ago, on a Tuesday evening, that we received a flurry of terrifying text messages,…
In the aftermath of my son Nick’s sudden death, a number of friends asked if there was a way they could honor his memory with a gift. That led to the founding of the Nick Challies Memorial Scholarship at the schools where Nick was a student—Boyce College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Nick…
Today is Thanksgiving for us Canadians—we like to get the holiday out of the way a little bit earlier than our neighbors to the south. And since it’s a holiday I thought I’d take it easy and provide nothing more substantial than a bit of an update on life and family. First, though, a word…
It has been some time since my last personal/family update, and it seemed like Labour Day might be the time to remedy that. I suppose most people sleep in on a holiday, but I’ve never been good at sleeping in—or sleeping at all, really. So instead I’m up early with an itch to do some…
I thought I might break into the regularly-scheduled programming at this site to provide a few updates on what’s going on in my life, vocation, and family. I’ve got a few updates on health, projects, travel, and so on. Health Quite a number of people have asked about my health, and especially about the strange…
Are you still looking for that elusive perfect Christmas gift? Or maybe you’re just looking for something to read over the holidays. Here are some of the new and notable books that arrived on my doorstep recently. There might just be something here for you or for someone you love. Here’s the complete list:
Hi, everyone. This is Aileen writing today. On behalf of Tim I wanted to let you know that the ongoing issue with the nerves in his arms has flared up badly over the past week. He is also having some issues with his back—we are not sure if the two are directly related although we…
Back in October I mentioned that I had largely lost the ability to type. I had experienced some kind of nerve damage that made typing sometimes uncomfortable and at other times excruciating. A little bit of time has passed, so I thought it was probably time for an update. The short of it is this:…
Good morning, and merry Christmas. I trust you are enjoying a sweet and meaningful holiday today. My family has two Christmas traditions: The at-home-in-Canada and the away-in-Chattanooga traditions. This year we are in Chattanooga where my family lives. Some friends of friends were kind enough to allow us access to their home while they are…
It took a trip to Bavaria, but I finally saw color for the first time yesterday. Reds and greens at least. And it was pretty amazing. For many years I have known that I have significant red/green color-blindness (and am classified as strong deutan). This is a hereditary condition “caused by an anomaly in the…
It’s always a little easier to help others live the Christian life than to live it myself. It is easy enough to tell others how to face temptation when that particular sin has no hold on me. It is easy for me, a married guy, to give instruction on how to live the single life.…
My family celebrates two very different kinds of Christmas. Some years we head down to the South, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to spend Christmas with my parents, my siblings, and their families. Other years we stay right here at home and keep things smaller and quieter. It is one of those stay-at-home years–we are at home…
It is a stay-at-home kind of Christmas this year. I always find it fun to run back through the blog posts from December 25ths of the past to see where my family was and what we were doing that day. Some years we head down to Chattanooga to join my parents and siblings, while other…
It was exactly two years ago that I was ordained to the ministry. Yesterday I went back and looked at the ordination vow I made. Even better, I went back and looked at the notes my son jotted down during the sermon that day. The text was Titus 2:15: “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke…
I fell asleep last night thinking about Mike. Mike was a friend and colleague, something of a mentor in the first real job I had after graduating from college. I met Mike on the first day at that new job and it didn’t take long for us to click. We were never great friends—we didn’t…
One of the unique features of this blog is the little counter down in the bottom right of the site. It’s a little feature that simply increments by 1 number each day. Today it stands at 2,920. What this means is that it was 2,920 days ago that I decided to make this blog an…
It has been busy days around here. As you know, I spent last week on the road, speaking in Boston and Los Angeles. Today I am spending just 1 day in Dallas to speak at another of the Psalm 119 conferences. And then it will be a while before I am on the road again.…